Germany Says They Will have 100% Renewable Energy in 2050

In Europe, the growth of the renewable energy industry has continued to increase as many of the nations reach for their set goals. Most of the European Union states hope to reach 12% of electricity derived from renewable energy sources by the end of this year and many are either nearing their objective or have exceeded it. Germany, a leader in European renewable energy, exceeded their own goal three years ago and now believes that by the year 2050 Germany could generate 100% of their electricity from renewable energy sources, according to a statement released by the president of the Federal Environment Agency.

Jochen Flasbarth, current president of the Federal Environment Agency (or Umweltbundesamt, UBA), believes that given Germany's current progress with renewable energy and the level of technology we have currently makes the goal achievable. The UBA also believes that as Germany's renewable energy industry continues to boost the nation's economy, the two entities will be able to continue driving each other forward, allowing a prosperous nation to continue funding the conversion to renewable energy. Considering how robust Germany's current renewable energy development has been in the last decade, the UBA does not seem to be far off.

In the last ten years, Germany's use of renewable energy has increased from a modest 6.3% to 2009's figure of 16.1% of the entire nation's energy coming from renewable sources. Germany is currently one of the world's leaders in the development and use of wind power technologies, which accounts for nearly 38% of the nation's renewable power, and has also boasted an increased use of solar power from the last year of 17%. The use of biomass based renewable energy has also seen a considerable growth in Germany over the last several years with 30.5% of Germany's renewable energy deriving from biomass in 2009.

Germany's renewable energy legislation promises to continue striving for the goal of 100% renewable energy with several new goals in place to promote the development of renewable energy. In particular, Germany is aiming to increase the use of solar and wind power of the course of the next several years. They have also targeted carbon emissions with an overall goal of reducing emissions by 40% by 2020 and 85% by 2050. Currently, the majority of emissions being released in Germany, as well as in other European nations, come from its non-renewable energy sources. Coal burning plants are still common throughout Europe and as they are phased out and replaced with renewable energy sources the emissions will continue to drop throughout the region. A study from the European Renewable Energy Council announced earlier this month that should the current renewable energy trends continue, Europe could see an overall decrease in emissions by 95% by the year 2050.

While the goal seem rather lofty at the first look, they are also very reasonable should all the current trends increase. As long as Germany, and other European nations, continues spending the money and makes a profitable renewable energy industry there is no reason to believe that we could not see a 100% green Europe in 2050.

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